


all the beautiful things

by gayyaomomo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura and Lance are Siblings, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt at Humor, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), DILF Lance, F/M, Humor, I LOVE ME SOME BROGANES, I think?, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance Has Issues, Lance is a DILF in this that's all I'm saying, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Past Relationship(s), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Police Officer!Lance, Single Dad!Lance, Slow Burn, Teacher!Keith, We do not demonize ex-wives in this household, broganes, i live for that shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2018-11-21 07:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11353050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayyaomomo/pseuds/gayyaomomo
Summary: "Oh no he's hot"When (hot) single dad Lance is thrown into a situation completely out of his control he learns many things. How some people have no respect for time zones, how his sister is an asshole, that his best friends are even bigger assholes, that raising a six year old is harder than it looks, and that hey his daughter's teacher is actually pretty cute. This is Lance's cry for help, please save this man.





	1. never met you

**Author's Note:**

> Okay huge shoutout to my wonderful wife and beta [fen](http://www.witchykogane.tumblr.com/) who also has an ao3 account which you can find here I love her very much and all the thanks in the world to her. 
> 
> This is my first multichapter fic ever so please bare with me through some trial and error and probably very inconsistent update schedules (that will always be posted on my tumblr before hand). 
> 
> (Also if anyone can guess the song that I'm gonna be using through out this fic and lets me know you might get a little surprise)

Lance’s life had a routine; wake up, make coffee, wake Emma up, drop Emma off, go to work, pick Emma up, go home. It was boring, monotonous, predictable and everything Lance hated. The only good thing in his life he found in his life was Emma, who provided all the love and light he could possibly ask for. Lance loved Emma, she was the light of his life. Lance swore that Emma McClain, at age six, was the only lady he would ever need. Of course, there had been a time when that statement hadn’t rung true. Emma was his biological daughter after all.  
It was about seven years ago when Lance had gotten married, he was young, they had both been. Maybe that was their mistake. But they were in love and that’s what mattered. That fact had been their downfall, both young and far too in love to consider the future.

Lance’s wife-er _ex_ -wife, had a been a beautiful young half-Asian woman named Athena Blancaflor. She was a brilliant business woman with sharp eyes and a sharp tongue to match.  
Athena’s parents hadn’t been supportive of the marriage, _you’re too young_ they said, _she has her whole life ahead of her_ , _there will be other men_ , _better men_. Despite the criticisms, they persisted.

The ceremony had been beautiful; a beach wedding packed with family and friends. family. Lance would never forget the way his breath was punched out of him when he saw Athena, dark hair pulled into a bun with loose strands framing her face, flowered veil draping across her face yet not hiding the way her eyes sparked through her glasses.

They stood so close that Lance could count every single freckle on her face.

The months after marriage was bliss, despite what everyone said they didn’t feel their honeymoon glow fade. One year later, Athena found out she was pregnant with the baby that would become Emma McClain. It was one of the happiest periods in Lance’s life and holding his newborn daughter in his arms for the first time made him weep. Here was a little piece of himself. Alive and breathing, reaching up for him with tiny fingers. She was perfect. 

If someone were to ask Lance what the best day of his life was he would answer May 1st, 2011. The day Emma Maria McClain was born.

They were a picture-perfect. Sure, they didn’t fit into the American Dream of a white nuclear family, but it was _their_ family, filled with love and hard work. 

They started noticing problems when Emma was two, but both parties kept quiet for Emma’s sake. When Emma was three it became impossible for them to ignore the holes in their marriage. It wasn’t that anyone ever cheated, physically or emotionally or that any major problems occurred. It just felt as if they lost feelings in each other. 

They both wanted different things for their lives; Athena wanted to focus more on her work and career, and move their family to where her company needed her. Lance wanted to remain where they were and focus more on their family. They just drifted apart. It wasn’t like they didn’t _try_ , try they did, but despite their best efforts it was clear to see that Athena and Lance just weren’t happy anymore.

When Emma turned four they were finally legally divorced after not living together for months. The divorce process was fast and left them both on good terms with each other, a hammered-out custody plan for their daughter between them. During the school year, Emma would live with Lance, Athena sending in part of her pay check to help out with expenses. In the summer Athena would meet Lance and Emma at the airport and take Emma with her to London for the summer while Lance took his two weeks of vacation in other parts of Europe. 

It had become a fact of life for them and it didn’t bother Emma in the slightest; her Mama didn’t live with her Papa because they weren’t in love. They both loved Emma and that was more than enough for her. 

It was a new school year anyway, a new year of the same old routine, at least that’s what everyone expected. 

Until Lance’s phone started ringing at one in the morning.

Lance blindly patted his bedside table until he felt his hand bump against his vibrating phone. He hastily picked up the call without looking at the caller ID, praying to all things holy that the ringing hadn’t woken Emma up. Now fully awake he blinked slowly, clearing the sleep from his eyes and groaning at the time lit up on his alarm clock. 

He cleared his throat before speaking, “Hello?” Lance winced slightly; his voice sounded scratchy and tired, clearly evident that he had just woken up. The voice on the other end breathed a sigh of relief, “Lance? Thank God you picked up.”

“Wait ‘Thena?” Lance felt a sense of dread wash over him. Don’t get him wrong, it had nothing to do with the fact that he was talking to his ex-wife (they were very close friends). The fact that she was calling him this early meant something was wrong. 

“Lance, I have bad news- wait you sound really tired are you okay?”

Lance laughed a little bitterly, “It’s one in the fucking morning, ‘Thena.” Lance dragged his free hand down his face because honestly how much time and effort did it take to check the time zone difference. You can do it on your phone. For free. There was a small gasp from the other end of the phone, and Lance felt a small twinge of guilt for his petty thoughts. 

“Lance I am _so sorry_ I completely forgot I just got to work and I got caught up in-”

“Athena,” Lance cut her off mid-ramble, “it’s okay, just, what was that bad news you mentioned earlier?”

There was a long pause on the other end and Lance could practically see her chewing her lip nervously. “Athena…” he said in a more than slightly annoyed tone (it was one in the morning, he had the right to be a little pissy). 

“I met with my boss this morning”. He was a little taken aback by how short the sentence was; usually she was a little more than long-winded in conversation. 

“And?”

“I can’t take Emma for the summer this year”. Lance felt his heart stop. 

“I’m so sorry Lance, my boss said I can’t take the time off to look after her this year and that it would be inappropriate for me to bring her into the office. I tried to explain to him but-”

Lance had stopped listening. He felt the anxiety bubble up inside him. It was gripping him and paralysing him where he sat; completely still as he only heard the thumping of his heart and his shallow breath. He had to work all summer except for his two weeks of vacation, and couldn’t take any extra time off just to look after Emma over the summer. The only other option was a babysitter and various day camps, and just thinking about the price left a bitter taste in the back of Lance’s mouth. He wished he could enlist the help of his relatives but he knew none of them would be able to take care of Emma. Shit.

“Lance? Lance are you okay?” Athena’s concerned voice pulled Lance out of his own worried thoughts. He shook his head to help clear the fearful fog from his head and put on an obviously fake smile before he remembered that Athena couldn’t see him. “Don’t worry! I’ll figure something out by the end of the school year.”

“But-”

“Nope. No buts”

“Okay…” Lance could tell that Athena was hesitant, and Lance didn’t blame her but there was nothing they could do. “If you’re sure about this then I’m going to leave you to sleep. Take care Lance, tell Emma I love her.”

“I will, you take care too-”. 

The line went dead.

Lance flopped back onto his bed, groaning, wiping furiously at tears threatening to spill over. He was not going to cry about this, he was a _goddamn adult_ , he could deal with these things. He just needed to find a way to work around this… setback. His eyes stung when he thought of how Emma would react to not being able to see her Mama this year. 

The bedroom door slowly creaked open and Lance whipped his head around, unshed tears still making his eyes slightly watery. Emma stood in the doorway, rubbing her eyes. “Papa?” she asked, yawning and clutching the stuffed blue lion she slept with a little closer. 

Lance swallowed and smiled at her, blinking his eyes rapidly ( _fuck off tears, I am not crying in front of my daughter_ ). “Yes princess? Is everything okay?” Emma shifted from one foot to another nervously. “I heard your phone go off and heard you talking, and it woke me up,” she mumbled not meeting Lance’s eyes.

He shook his head fondly, ignoring the way his heart sank a little. “Oh Emma, come here baby girl.” Emma shuffled over to Lance who picked her up easily and rested her in his lap. “It’s okay Em I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow okay?” It was too early for an emotional conversation like the one he was going to have to endure with Emma tomorrow. 

“Do you wanna sleep with Papa?” Emma’s eyes brightened a little at that and she gave an enthusiastic, affirmative nod. She crawled off of Lance’s lap and scampered underneath the covers, hiding her face so only the top half was showing. Lance gave her a short smile and crawled in next to her pulling the young girl close to his chest, where she buried her face there. The two settling in for the few hours of sleep they had left. 

As Lance stroked her silky black hair softly he hummed softly until he felt her breathing even out and her muscles completely relax. He couldn’t stop the warm smile make its way across his face. She was his precious girl; the one he loved more than anyone in the world. Lance pressed a kiss to her forehead gently and settled himself back onto his pillows.

“ _Buenas noches, mi amor_.”


	2. baby be good to me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> funfact: i came up with the idea for this fic and hand wrote the entire first chapter by hand on an eleven hour flight
> 
> as always shout out to my [beta](http://witchykogane.tumblr.com/) and also dedication of the chapter to my qpp zari

“Shit, shit, shit. Are you fucking kidding me,” Lance hissed through his teeth as he sat in his car. Lance was a good father, he never swore when Emma was around (at least not in English). Even when he was at his most frustrated, dealing with his asshole landlord or stuck in traffic, Lance never swore in front of his daughter. He tried to reminded himself of this fact in his head over and over again to no avail. All while gripping the steering wheel with his hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He almost turned around in his seat to tell Emma she could never repeat what he had just said but then remembered, Emma wasn’t here, and that’s why he was in this mess.

The morning had started off shitty to begin with. The wake up call from Athena earlier did not help improve his sleep or his mood. So when his alarm went off only five hours later, needless to say both him and Emma were not impressed. He had to drag himself out of bed to go make coffee and in the back of his mind Lance knew not even an entire pot would pull him through this day.

Emma was even worse. Usually Lance would let her sleep longer than he himself did just based on the fact that Emma was only six, and while she didn’t take naps, she did get cranky without enough sleep. When Lance returned to go get dressed for work he realized that Emma had fallen back asleep with only twenty minutes left before they had to leave. 

Lance shook Emma awake, causing the young girl to protest to no end. 

In the end they finally got out the door but not without some kicking, screaming, and crying. (And not all of it was from Emma). 

When Lance got to work it wasn’t much better. Lance was patrolling, doing some rounds since one of the other officers had called in sick and Lance volunteered to take his patrol, when some asshole decided to shoot up the bank. Right as Lance passed the building on patrol. “Smooth move dick cheese,” Lance muttered to himself as he called for backup before running into the building, weapon drawn.

The scuffle was over fairly quickly, but it still soured Lance’s mood for the rest of the day. Only a few injured civilians who were treated at the scene, but now Lance had to write up a report for the whole incident and fuck him; today would just not end.

Lance had decided it was probably a better idea to just sit at his desk while he thunked his head against the table. 

_Thunk, thunk, thunk,_ the rhythmic tapping of his head against the desk was probably the only thing keeping Lance sane at this point. He couldn’t find it in himself to give a single shit about the report he would have to turn into the captain by the end of the day. “Officer,” someone said, hovering over Lance. 

Lance let out a long sigh and closed his eyes not even bothering to look up. “If this is not an emergency can you _please_ go direct your problems to someone else.” 

An amused huff from up above finally caused Lance to slowly look up. The gulp he made was audible as Lance paled with mortification, staring up at the Captain. 

“I just wanted to know if you wanted to go grab some lunch?” the Captain asked, seemingly not bothered by Lance’s sour mood. Lance nodded shakily and grabbed his coat as the two made their way out the door to a nearby cafe. 

“Shiro I am _so sorry_ for snapping at you, I thought you were someone else,” Lance said sheepishly, gripping the cup of coffee he held in his hands. Shiro was seated directly across from him and took a sip of his own coffee before answering, “Lance, it’s fine, I know how stressed you are with it being a new school year and all.” 

Lance slumped a little in his seat and let his eyes slide half way closed. He gave Shiro a once over; maybe if he shared his troubles with Shiro he might get a bit of sympathy from the man, maybe some time off...but no, with all the financial trouble linked with his current dilemma he didn’t want to sound like he was begging for a pay raise.

“Lance talk to me please,” said Shiro, prompting Lance to fully open his eyes. Shiro  
seemed...concerned. “I know I’m your superior officer and all but damn it, Lance, we’re friends  
we have been for a while.” The tone of Shiro’s voice was firm and it honestly shocked Lance a  
little bit. Shiro didn’t normally talk to him like this...it kind of felt like a guilt trip. Lance looked  
up with dawning realization. This was a guilt trip.

Lance pointed an accusatory finger at Shiro, “This is to get me to open up about my feelings isn’t it!” Shiro looked taken aback, and Lance felt a sense of pride sweep over him before he realized that this was one of those situations that he didn’t exactly want to be right in. 

Lance crossed his arms and huffed pointedly looking away from Shiro, with all the petulance of a child. (Emma might have rubbed off on Lance a little bit). Lance side eyed Shiro who sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose right where his scar ran across. 

“Lance, _please_ I’m worried about you. So is your sister, she-”

“Wait you talked to _my sister_? What the fuck Shiro!” Lance knew his voice was getting louder than socially acceptable but he couldn’t give a shit at this point, he was mad. 

Shiro fixed Lance with a cold, steady gaze, “Lance, you know Allura and I are good friends you shouldn’t be surprised that we talk.”

“But you talked about _me_ ,” Lance whined. Shiro sighed once more and opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t get his words out before one of the cafe workers came by and set down  
their sandwiches. Shiro smiled and thanked her, while Lance muttered out his own small thank  
you.

As soon as she left, Shiro took a bite of sandwich before continuing, “Allura knows you’re busy but if you visited her or even called her, then she wouldn’t have to call me to ask me to talk to you.” 

Lance flinched, he knew that he needed to see his sister more often. It was just the fact that he didn’t have the time, but for calling her he had no excuse. He was avoiding calling Allura because he knew if he did, she would drop everything to help him out but he couldn’t do that to her, not while she herself was busy earning her PhD after years of hard work. 

Lance hung his head in shame, as soon as he did he felt Shiro’s hand on his shoulder. “Shiro, I’m sorry, it’s just been so hard recently,” Lance heard his own voice crack in frustration. 

“Lance if you need some time off-”

“Shiro I can’t _afford_ the time off,” Lance looked at Shiro with pleading eyes, silently begging him not to press the issue. Shiro pressed his lips together, conflicted, but ended up nodding. He squeezed Lance’s shoulder before he finally let go. 

“Don’t think we’re done with this Lance,” Shiro said pointing a prosthetic finger at him. 

“Yes _Dad_ ,” Lance rolled his eyes. Sometimes Shiro acted more like a dad than he did. 

There was a small huff from Shiro, but Lance saw the genuine smile creeping across the older man’s face. The rest of the lunch was followed by good food and small talk that Lance effortlessly spun into witty banter; just the thing to take Lance’s mind off of his problems, for now. 

Now Lance was faced with his numerous problems in his own car, his work uniform hastily thrown in the back, his civilian clothes rumpled from his panicked scrambling. In hindsight, he really should have spent his time writing that report and not banging his head against the table.

Procrastination was a bitch and so was ADHD. Spending the rest of the afternoon doing everything but his report lead to him being stuck in rush hour traffic, on top of being late to pick up Emma. He could only pray that she realized that Lance was late because of work, not because he forgot about her (it was _one time_ okay?). 

He briefly considered breaking about five traffic laws, but remember he was a police officer and he was supposed to hold up the law. So now he was stuck in his car, swearing and clenching the wheel. 

It took maybe an hour before Lance saw Emma’s school on the end of the street. He sped up, (just a little bit!) and parked haphazardly in the parking lot, before getting out and running to where he saw Emma sitting on a bench talking excitedly to another person. God damn it, he told her not to talk to strangers. 

“Emma,” Lance called out, waving his hands above his head to get her attention while running over to her. Emma perked up and turned around, hopping off the bench and running towards Lance, “Papa!” 

Lance crouched down in front of her on the sidewalk, grabbing her arms and looking into her eyes with concern. “ _Con permiso amor_ ,” Lance cooed as he pressed kisses to Emma’s forehead. Emma turned bright red and wiggled in Lance’s grip, “Papa,” Emma hissed giving a subtle nod to the figure he saw earlier. 

Lance smirked at his daughter and ruffled her hair, “Oh am I embarrassing you?” Lance teased. He heard a man’s laugh from behind Emma and suddenly another hand was on Emma’s shoulder, “Don’t worry Emma, I have no idea what your dad just said.” 

Lance, still crouching, looked over his daughter’s shoulder to eye the man who had been sitting with her. Maybe it was a habit from his job, but he was a little suspicious about a lone man sitting with a six year old girl. Their eyes met and Lance froze. 

He was gorgeous; he had a lean frame, black messy hair that seemed to be something resembling a mullet, ends tied in a low ponytail. It was his eyes that really got to Lance; they were almond shaped and uniquely coloured; at first he thought they were a dark blue grey, but then Lance finally realized they were a deep blue purple. 

“ _Fóllame ese hombre es tremendo mangon_ ,” Lance muttered absentmindedly. Emma screeched and clapped her hands over her ears, “Papa!” 

Lance flushed a deep red and hurriedly stood up, “ _Emma no me vayas a dichabar Mama, okey_?” Emma huffed and crossed her arms, “ _Para por favor_ ,” she muttered under her breath causing Lance to point a finger at her with a warning look. 

The man was looking at the two of them with an albeit confused look on his face, Lance gave him a nervous smile. The more Lance looked at him, the more he examined him that while absolutely drop dead gorgeous, the stranger seemed to be stiff and was awkwardly standing away from Emma and himself. It was curious seeing as how he had seemed so friendly and animate with  
Emma from afar.

Lance stuck his hand out, hoping to break the tension and bring the stranger out of his shell a little bit, “I’m Lance it’s nice to meet you,” Lance noted with a hint of pride that he sounded a lot more confident than he felt.

He hesitantly shook Lance’s hand, “I’m Keith Kogane, Emma’s teacher this year,” he responded. “Oh!” Keith jumped slightly at Lance’s outburst, eyebrows raised and eyes wide clearly startled.

“I thought you looked familiar, I’m Emma’s dad,” he said, pulling back from the handshake and running his hand through his hair.

Keith let out a small laugh, (holy shit Lance was pretty sure he had just seen an angel), “I know, I have seen you pick her up.”

Lance rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, “Right, ah,” Keith raised an eyebrow. _Shit_ , Keith probably thought he was a babbling weirdo who abandoned his kid for fun. “Thank you so much for staying with Emma, I got off of work late and then got stuck in traffic,” Lance sighed, running his hand through his hair again, it was a nervous tick, one that made his hair look like a mess. 

Keith seemed to relax and brighten up a little bit more at the mention of Emma. He ruffled her hair and Emma gave him a toothy grin in return, “It was no problem, we had fun right Emma?” Emma nodded, “We talked about Tía Allura,” she chirped, rocking back and forth on her heels. 

Lance let out a small, “Shit,” and lifted Emma off the ground onto his hip. She clung to his neck and twisted to see Keith who looked concerned. “Mr. McClain-”

“Lance.”

“Lance are you okay?” Keith asked, eyebrows furrowed. Lance flashed him a smile as he hoisted Emma higher on his hip, “It’s fine just remembered how late it is! I gotta get the little one here home.” 

Keith’s sharp eyes seemed to soften and he hummed in agreement, “Besides you should get home too, it’s late and I don’t want anyone worrying about you back at home,” Lance laughed nervously. 

Keith brushed a loose strand of hair out of his eyes and shook his head, “Really it’s fine, I have nowhere to be.” 

Lance chuckled and was about to open his mouth when Emma let out a small yawn. Lance kissed the top of her head affectionately and looked back up to Keith who said simply, “You should get her home.”

Lance nodded and turned to walk away when he felt Keith grab his arm. He turned to see Keith flushed in embarrassment, “I’m so sorry I just wanted to give Emma this.” Keith held out a sheet of paper with a drawing on it. Lance gave a grateful smile and grabbed the paper with one hand while still holding Emma up with the other. 

“It was nice to meet you Lance, see you around,” said Keith with a smirk, as he turned on his heel, picking up his bag from the bench while giving Lance the perfect view of his stunning, gorgeous, heavenly, tight ass. (Okay inner Lance calm down). Then he brushed past Lance as he made his way to the parking lot, leaving Lance standing there six year old half asleep in his arms, mouth agape. “Holy shit,” he whispered, “I am so gay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there was a lot more Spanish in this chapter and because I used Cuban slang I'll provide the translations here
> 
> Con permiso amor = I'm sorry sweetheart  
> Fóllame ese hombre es tremendo mangon = Fuck me that man is hot  
> Emma no me vayas a dichabar Mama, okey? = Emma you do not spill the beans to Mama, okay?  
> Para por favor = Please stop  
> (Let me know if any of my translations are incorrect my sending me a message [here](http://www.spoopymcclain.tumblr.com/))
> 
> Comments are so very much appreciated but if thats not your jam kudos make me equally happy!  
> [tumblr](http://www.spoopymcclain.tumblr.com/)


	3. got nothing to give

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long you guys T-T I've been so busy and I've had writers block, all around not a good time. But with the help of my lovely beta Fen I pushed through!! I really do recommend following me on [tumblr](http://www.spoopymcclain.tumblr.com/) if you haven't because I post fic progress updates on there!!

The drive home was torture for Lance; the mental image of Keith smirking at him was too much for Lance’s very bisexual heart to handle. He had only just met the guy! He was in a little too deep.

Lance chided himself, “ _What are you a Disney princess? You can’t crush on someone as soon as you see them_.” His voice was low, but he still heard Emma shift in her sleep from the backseat. She really was more tired than she was letting on. 

Okay, sure, he wasn’t _crushing_ on someone he’d just met fifteen minutes ago, that was ridiculous, but Keith was very attractive Lance would give himself that. Maybe he has a shitty personality that would cancel out the attraction he felt towards his _daughter’s fucking teacher_. But with the way Keith had acted around Emma, Lance doubted Keith was a bad person.

He was in deep shit and he knew it.

Lance pulled into the driveway of their modest house slowly, killing the engine and looking in the rear-view mirror to find Emma blinking herself awake. Lance smiled and turned in his seat to look at her, “Hey sweetheart you ready for dinner?” 

Emma yawned and nodded, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as they both started to unbuckle themselves. Emma shrugged on her backpack and clutched her drawing in one hand, while she reached up and grabbed Lance’s hand in the other. 

“Papa?” Emma asked as Lance fished around in his pocket for his house keys. “Why haven’t we seen Tía Allura in a while?” Lance stopped turning the key halfway and looked down at Emma with wide eyes before he made a quick recovery, masking the guilt he felt with a sort of parental calmness. The kind that tells your kid that everything is fine, even when you yourself don’t feel that way.

“Well,” Lance said unlocking the door and pushing it open, “Tía Allura has been busy with school, that’s all.” Both of them toed off their shoes as they entered the house, and Lance hung his coat up as Emma waited patiently behind him, “School? Why is Tía Allura still in school?” 

Lance ruffled Emma’s hair, earning a squawk from the unsuspecting victim. Lance laughed and continued towards the kitchen, Emma flattening down her hair and sticking her tongue out before she proceeded to follow Lance. 

“Well, some people go to extra school sometimes, Tía Allura is one of those people who’s working extra hard to be able to get the job she wants,” Lance explained patiently as he pulled the pasta out of the cupboard directly above him. Emma lit up in excitement and threw her hands in the air, “A star scientist!”

Lance laughed at her oversimplification of one of the most complicated jobs he’d ever heard of, “Yes a star scientist. Now,” he leveled his gaze at Emma who was handing him the pot. “You, young lady, need to start your reading for the night, don’t you?” 

Emma groaned and threw her head back, “No reading no dessert,” said Lance in a sing song voice. Emma perked up immediately and took off towards the living room. Lance sighed, a small smile on his face as he shook his head; maybe bribing his child wasn’t the best parenting strategy, but none of his friends had kids, so he couldn’t turn to them for help.

God, Lance wished he knew someone who could deal with kids. Pidge hated kids, Hunk was single and wasn’t interested in having kids yet, Shiro was a mystery to Lance, and Allura and her girlfriend Shay weren’t adopting until _after_ Allura got her Ph.D. Lance paused mid-thought; were those all of his friends? That was kind of sad, as young as he was he should have more friends than that. Having a kid really did wipe out your social life. 

Whatever, it wasn’t like it was a big deal anyway…right?

Dinner was uneventful, with Emma talking about how school was going so far, and Lance recounting Emma with stories from work. That was secretly his favourite part of their family dinners. Emma delighted in the exciting adventures Lance had as a police officer. It made Lance sound like a hero, arriving first to the scene of a bank robbery and helping stop a disaster, instead of the truth, which was writing up a report afterward. 

He wove tales of his department all throughout dinner until Emma was almost falling asleep on her empty plate, eyes blinking rapidly to keep herself awake. Lance chuckled and grabbed her dishes, standing up with his own cutlery in the other hand. “I think it’s time for bed. What do you say, kiddo?” Emma opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything, a yawn interrupted her.

“I’ll take that as a yes then, go brush your teeth and put on pajamas while I do the washing up.” Emma nodded reluctantly and trudged towards her bedroom. Lance smiled at her before turning back to the task at hand; he rolled up his sleeves and got to work washing dishes. 

He bit his lip as he started to scrub the pots and pans; he was up to his elbows in soapy water which always gave him a weird itching feeling. Emma didn’t have many friends at school from what he could tell, which baffled him; she was always so vibrant and loud at home or with Lance’s family friends. He was concerned about her, she never mentioned any friends at school or brought up any requests for playdates. 

He wished he could help her more, but he knew that it was hard to monitor his daughter while she was at school. Maybe he should set up a parent teacher conference, purely professional of course, to see if his speculations about Emma’s social life were correct. 

He let out a heavy sigh through his nose and his shoulders sagged unconsciously. It was another issue to add to the growing pile he was slowly but surely accumulating. Figure out how to deal with Emma over the summer, call his sister, fix his social life, fix his daughter’s social life, the list went on and on. “ _Dios mío ¿Qué haré?_ ” Lance wrung his hands together with the towel he used for drying dishes, twisting the cloth through his hands. 

“Papa? What’s wrong?” Lance jumped and spun around to see Emma standing in the doorway holding her blue lion. Emma’s eye brows were knit together and her hands were clutched tight around the lion. “Nothing is wrong _cariño_ , Papa’s just thinking out loud,” Lance explained in a soothing tone as he set the towel down and walked over to Emma. 

She bit her lip seemingly in deep thought, and Lance laughed a little to himself she looked exactly like he did when he thought about something troubling. Same furrowed eye brows and pouty lips. “Promise?” Emma asked, holding out her pinky finger up to her dad. Lance’s expression melted into one of complete adoration as he squatted down in front of her to lock pinkies. “Pinky promise,” he responded, his face completely serious.

Emma’s face split into a wide grin, and she threw her arms around Lance’s neck. Lance smiled softly to himself and returned the hug with equal affection. He smoothed his hand up and down her back as he scooped her up from where he was crouching so he could carry her in his arms. “Come on let’s go to bed,” he said, and as he carried Emma towards her room, all he could hear was a tired murmur. 

Lance closed Emma’s bedroom door softly, making sure he heard no stirring on the other side of the door. The walls in the house were unfortunately thin and Emma could be woken by even the slightest noise sometimes. Lance pulled out his phone and looked at it with a sigh, calling his sister was inevitable and her wrath would only be worse the longer he put it off.

The front door slowly creaked open and Lance winced a little at the noise, having a sleeping kid really made you hypersensitive of all the noise in the house. As the door swung shut Lance sat on his front porch staring at his phone. He sighed and unlocked it and hit the dial button, there was no going back now. 

Allura picked up on the first ring.

“Lance you bastard, I’m going to kill you,” came Allura’s voice through the phone. 

Lance huffed out a laugh, “Nice to hear you too, sis.”

“Why haven’t you called me, huh? I’ve been worried sick-. Oh? Sorry, babe, I’ll keep it down, love you too.”

Lance snickered down the phone, “The missus telling you off?” he joked.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” she sighed a smile evident in her voice. 

Lance smiled and tilted his head back to look at the sky; the stars were starting to glow brighter as the night progressed. “I’m really sorry ‘Llura, it just feels like everything’s been going wrong recently.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

They both laughed and Lance felt comforted by his older sister, even if she was just on the phone with him. He missed her. He missed when they were little and after a bad fall or anytime he was scared, how Allura would hold him in her arms and kiss his forehead whispering to him, telling him that everything would be okay. 

He wished he had that now, someone to hold him and tell him everything would be okay, even if they were lying.

“Lance? Are you okay?” Allura’s concerned voice disrupted his thoughts. It was the maternal concern she saved only for her girlfriend and Lance. 

“I’m fine, I think, just everything’s gone tits up,” she didn’t even laugh at one of the favourite expressions their mother used when they were younger. That meant she was really worried. There was silence, an invitation to continue talking. Lance groaned and ran a hand down his face. 

“Athena called me yesterday.”

Still more silence from Allura, Athena and Allura were still on good terms but Athena could still be a sore subject for Lance for…various reason.

Lance took a deep breath and then the proverbial dam opened.

“She can’t take Emma with her for the summer and I don’t have the time to look after her or the money to send her to camp all summer.” 

Allura started to make a noise of protest before Lance quickly cut her off.

“I know you can’t take her so don’t even bother _trying_ to offer to do that.”

There was a faint click sound as Allura shut her mouth so fast her teeth clashed together. “Ow,” she muttered under her breath, “Lance I assure you you’ll figure something out, you always do. Can’t you ask for Shiro’s help?”

“That’s another thing!” Lance exclaimed indignantly, jumping up from the front steps to pace relentlessly in front of his house. He continued, “I _know_ that you’ve been talking to Shiro about me and uh _thanks_ , ‘Llura, glad to see that you trust me.” 

Allura cursed loudly, clearly frustrated, “He was supposed to keep that a secret!” What was probably meant to sound angry just came through as a whine, and Lance wanted to poke fun at her childish tone, but he wasn’t done yet. 

“Shiro is notoriously bad at keeping secrets-”

“I can see that.”

“Don’t interrupt me, and I just realized that I have no friends outside Shiro, who’s my boss, Hunk, Pidge, and you. That’s just the tip of the iceberg and _now_ I’m worried that Emma doesn’t have friends at school and I have to set up a teacher conference with Emma’s _annoyingly_ hot teacher-” 

Allura stopped him mid ramble, “Woah, Woah, Woah, did you just say annoyingly hot teacher?”

Lance’s face turned the colour of a stop light.

“No I did not!” he shrieked, becoming even more embarrassed by the second as Allura sang in her sing song voice, “You have a crush~”

“I do not! I met him once and that was today!” 

“Disney princess I see, Lance please do _try_ and control yourself.”

“He was nice and he’s objectively hot! I’m a healthy bisexual man, Allura, I’m allowed to think someone’s attractive!” At this rate Lance was pretty sure he was going to die of embarrassment; he couldn’t believe he had just told his meddling older sister about his daughter’s attractive teacher. 

“But you didn’t say objectively hot, you said _annoyingly_ hot. Face it, _cariño_ , you have a big fat gay crush on him.” Lance made a pitiful whimpering noise and he slumped back down on the steps. She was right, there was nothing he could do but pine like the twenty something he was. 

“I know,” he whined, “I’m screwed.”

“Yup,” she said, popping the p at the end of the word. There was some rustling as she switched the phone from one ear to another. “So?”

“So?”

“What’s his name! You have to know his name; _please_ tell me you know his name.”

“Of course I know his name!” he said indignantly, shooting up straight from where he had previously been slumping. “It’s Keith,” Lance said with a small smile. 

“So you _haven’t_ reached Cinderella levels of boy crazy insanity, thank god.” 

“Allura!” 

She cackled over the phone in the snorting laughter that was always deemed un-lady like by their old-fashioned Abuelita. Lance, on the other hand, giggled incessantly, it annoyed their Abuelita to no end that while Allura had a snorting laugh Lance tended to giggle instead. 

Lance decided he’d had enough of Allura teasing him for his non-existent love life. It was getting late and if he was lucky, maybe he could sneak in a few episodes of _RuPaul's Drag Race_.

“I’m hanging up,” he said abruptly, pulling the phone away from his ear. He heard Allura’s much more muffled voice say “Wait no-!” 

It was already too late. Lance was pocketing his phone when he heard the chime from his phone indicating a text. 

From: Allura [7:51 pm]

>> You dick 

From: Lance [7:51pm]  
>> <3

Lace laughed and pocketed his phone heading towards the door, he had quite a few episodes to catch up on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are so very much appreciated but if thats not your jam kudos make me equally happy! (Hello regular commenters I love you!!!!)
> 
> (Please point out any errors by messaging me [here](http://www.spoopymcclain.tumblr.com/))

**Author's Note:**

> Once again thank you so much for reading and deciding that this was worth your time. I do this for the hell of it and if reading this makes you happy it makes me happy! Please please please leave a comment because those make my day even if its a little suggestion or some constructive criticism and if comments aren't your thing I appreciate every kudos I get.
> 
> [tumblr](http://www.spoopymcclain.tumblr.com/)


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